International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (IJTSRD)

Volume: 3 | Issue: 2 | Jan-Feb 2019 Available Online: www.ijtsrd.com e-ISSN: 2456 - 6470

Experimental Analysis of a Diesel Engine Run on

Different Biodiesel Fuel Blends
Vidya Sagar Mishra1, Dr. Nitin Tenguria2
1Research
Scholar, 2Associate Professor
1,2Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sagar Institute of Research & Technology,
Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India

ABSTRACT
Ever increasing rate in the production of automotive vehicles and the significance of decreasing the pollutions in nature trigger
numerous researches to find the alternative solution. Biodiesel has been considered a vital fuel for diesel engine view point. In
the present study a single cylinder diesel engine was run fully on non-petroleum fuels blends. In this regard Jatropha methyl
ester (JME) and waste transformer oil (WTO) were selected as a fuel for the replacement of diesel. diesel engines such as fuel
direct injection method is used. The WTO at low percentages (10-40% at regular intervals of 10% on a volume basis), was
blended with diesel, to get the fuel blends for the investigation. The performance and emission terms were compared, analyzed
and presented in this article.

Keywords: Biodiesel; Diesel Engine; Waste to Energy; Efficiency

1. INTRODUCTION
Fast depletion of fossil fuels and increasing number of
vehicle population, and their detrimental effect on the
environment results in urgent need of alternative fuels for
meeting the sustainable energy demand with minimum
environmental impact [1]. Therefore, there is a necessity to
find suitable alternative fuels for diesel engines that are
cheaper and eco-friendly. Biomass is a very good source for
deriving different kind of alternative fuels. Biomass is
available in the form of agriculture residue, vegetable seeds,
animal waste, crop residue, food waste, industrial waste,
municipal waste etc [2]. Biomass is an organic matter and is
renewable over time. There are two methods commonly
adopted to derive alternative fuels from biomass sources
which are; (i) Biochemical method (ii) Thermo-chemical
method. In biochemical method, fermentation and anaerobic
digestion are used to convert some of the biomass wastes
into alcohol and biogas respectively. Biomass sources such
as crop residue, cow dung, pig manure, spent wash etc. are
converted into biogas through anaerobic digestion. If the
biomass source is properly converted into an alternative fuel
especially for diesel engine, then the demand for diesel fuel
will be considerably reduced [3-5].
Energy consumption is growing exponentially due to rapid
progress in the population, industrialization and increase in
number of automotive vehicle. Nowadays, the petroleum
fuels play a vital role in the mobility, industrial sectors, and
agricultural sectors. Meanwhile, the availability of petroleum
resources is limited in nature, available in restricted area
and they are getting depleted day by day [6-10 Furthermore,
problems related to the environment are the most important
consequences of consumption of more petroleum fuels. The
issue of energy security and environment issues made
countries and researchers to look for alternate means of
renewable as well as environment-friendly fuels. The most
promising and economically viable alternative fuels which
can be a replacement of petroleum fuels are biofuels [11-13].
Various sectors are looking for alternative fuels because of
the energy crisis and the fear of society for depleting earth’s
non-renewable resources. Among various researchers from
all over the world started proposing various methods to use
vegetable oils in internal combustion engines. These
methods include pyrolysis, micro-emulsification, direct
blending with diesel, transesterification. etc. [14-15].
Engine test [16] was conducted using Putranjiva, Jatropha
and Karanja oils in a Ricardo variable compression ignition
engine to investigate and compare the results of
performance and emission properties. It was found that the
non-edible oil of Jatropha gave the best performance and
emissions results at all the load conditions compared with
other vegetable oils. Saravanan et al [17] have investigated
the feasibility study of crude rice bran oil as a diesel
substitute in a compression ignition engine without any
modifications. They reported that thermal efficiency of the
engine with rice bran oil is slightly lesser than diesel, but
resulted in better emission characteristics. Naga Prasad et al.
[18] investigated the compression ignition engine with neat
castor oil and its blends with diesel and found that the
performance characteristics are reduced to those of diesel.
But they also found that the emission characteristics are
increased at the rated load compared to those of diesel. Also,
they observed that 25% of neat Castor oil blended with 75%
of diesel is the well-suited blend for Diesel engine without
heating and/or without implementing any engine
modifications. Deepanraj et al., [19] studied the performance
characteristics of a single cylinder direct injection diesel
engine with palm oil biodiesel and its blends. From their
results, they reported that the acceptable\ thermal
efficiencies were obtained, and the specific fuel consumption
and exhaust gas temperatures were higher than the results
obtained with diesel fuel. Many investigations have been
done on the utilization of biodiesel derived from different
feed stock in diesel engine [20-22. From those work it can be
pointed out that the selection of biodiesel is very important.
The biodiesel derived from non-edible feed stock is always a
better choice due to food security issue because use of edible
oil as feed stock of biodiesel will affect this issue critically.
The different non-edible feed stock used for production of
biodiesel is Jatropha curcas, karanja, tobacco seed, rice bran,

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 International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (IJTSRD) @ www.ijtsrd.com eISSN: 2456-6470
mahua, neem, rubber Plant, castor, linseed, and microalgae fuel blends for the investigation. The designations of the test
[23-24], etc. In this chapter application of biodiesel derived fuels and their compositions used in this study are given
by Jatropha oil is described. The bio-diesel thus produced is below.
blended with waste transformer oil at different volume
proportions and tested in diesel engines. JME WTO Diesel
Fuel
(by volume) (by volume) (by volume)
2. Fuel Preparation diesel - - 100%
In the present study fuel was produced by transesterification JME 100% - -
process. The esterification process involves the reaction of a B10 90% 10% -
triglyceride (fat/oil) with alcohol in the presence of an B20 80% 20% -
alkaline catalyst such as sodium hydroxide. A triglyceride B30 70% 30% -
has a glycerine molecule as its base with three long fatty B40 60% 40% -
acids attached. The alcohol reacts with the fatty acids to form
a mono-alkyl ester, or biodiesel, and crude glycerol, used in 3. Experimentation
the cosmetic, pharmaceutical, food and painting industries. The test was carried out on a single cylinder, four stroke,
The alcohol used is usually either methanol, which produces naturally aspirated, air cooled, DI diesel engine which has a
methyl esters, or ethanol, with ethyl esters. The base applied maximum power out of 4.4 kW. The test engine
for methyl ester is potassium or sodium hydroxide, but for specifications are provided in Table 1. For loading on the test
ethyl ester the former base is more suitable. The engine an eddy current dynamometer is coupled to engine
esterification reaction is affected by the chemical structure with the help of load cell. The engine is interfaced to a
of the alcohol, the acid and the acid catalyst. control panel, which is connected to a computer. The inputs
obtained from different instruments are interfaced to a
The present study is aimed to analysis the effect of waste computer through an analog and digital converter card PCI-
transformer oil (WTO) blended with Jatropha Methyl Ester 1050 which is mounted on the motherboard. A data
(JME) in four different percentages as test fuels, on the acquisition system (DAS) integrated with a computer
performance and emission characteristics of a diesel engine. received data from different instruments which is then
The WTO at low percentages (10-40% at regular intervals of processed and displayed on the monitor.
10% on a volume basis), was blended with diesel, to get the

Table 1 Engine specifications

Manufacturer Kirloskar
Model TAF 1
Engine type Single cylinder, four stroke, constant speed, air cooled, direct injection, CI engine sp
Rated power (kW) 4.4
Speed (rpm) 1500 (constant)
Bore (mm) 87.5
Stroke (mm) 110
Piston type Bowl-in-piston
Displacement volume (cm3) 661
Compression ratio 17.5
Nozzle Opening pressure (bar) 200
Start of fuel injection 23 ˚CA bTDC (for diesel)
Start of fuel injection 24.5 ˚CA bTDC (for JMETPO20)
Dynamometer Eddy current
Injection type Pump-line-nozzle injection system
Nozzle type Multi hole
No. of holes 3

4. Results and Discussion all the test fuels used in the present study. This can be
This section discusses the results of the performance and pertained to the higher calorific value of the diesel fuel
emission parameters obtained from the test engine run on compared among all test fuel used.
diesel, JME and different JME-WTO blends.

4.1 Brake Thermal Efficiency

The brake thermal efficiency gives information regarding
how efficient the energy in the fuel was converted in to
power output [25]. Figure 1 presents the power
performance of the diesel and different test fuel blends
derived engine under different loading conditions. It can be
seen that under the same load, the greater efficiency is for
diesel operated engine. In addition, the engine power
increased linearly with the load for all the test fuels. As the
load increases the heat generated in the cylinder increases,
and hence, the brake thermal efficiency increases. At full load
Fig.1 Variation of brake thermal efficiency with brake
the diesel gave highest brake thermal efficiency compared to
power

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 International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (IJTSRD) @ www.ijtsrd.com eISSN: 2456-6470
The poor atomization of test fuels due to the higher viscosity
may also be one of the causes for lower brake thermal
efficiency than that of diesel. Among blends B20 produces
highest brake thermal efficiency.
4.2 Carbon Monoxide Emission
The carbon monoxide (CO) emission characteristics of the
engine run on diesel and different test fuel blends is
presented in Fig. 2. It is known that the rate of CO emission is
a function of the unburned fuel availability and mixture
temperature, which controls the rate of fuel decomposition
and oxidation. In the presence of sufficient oxygen, the CO
emission is converted into carbon dioxide emission [26]. The
value of CO emission at full load for the diesel, JME, B10, B10,
B15 and B20 blend was found to be 0.044, 0.035, 0.037, 0.04,
0.046 and 0.052%. The CO emission for the JME, B10 and
B20 is marginally lower than those of diesel fuel. This could
be due to the fact that JME contains excess oxygen which
helps for better combustion. When the percentage of tire
derived fuel increases beyond 10%, the CO emission
increases drastically. This may be due presence of aromatic
content which results in incomplete combustion, and may
lead to higher CO emission [27].
Fig.2 Variation of carbon monoxide emission with
brake power
4.3 Hydrocarbon Emission
Fig.3 Variation of the unburnt hydrocarbon emission
with brake power
The variation of hydrocarbon (HC) emission for diesel, JME
and different test fuel blends is shown in Fig. 3. It is observed
that hydrocarbon emission increases with the increase in
percentage of WTO in the JME-WTO blends. The HC emission
is lowest for JME and it was about 18 ppm at full load
operation. This can be due to oxygen molecule present in
biodiesel [28]. The highest value of HC emission was
@ IJTSRD | Unique Reference Paper ID – IJTSRD21582 | Volume – 3 | Issue – 2 | Jan-Feb 2019
obtained with B20 blend and was noticed to be 31 ppm. But
the addition of the tire derived liquid percentage results in
higher HC emission. This is due to the fact that TPO has
higher aromatic content, and hence may result in incomplete
combustion and more HC emission for B15 and B20
compared to the other test fuels used in this study. The HC
values for diesel, JME, B10, B20, B30 and B40 are 23, 18, 19,
21,25 and 31 ppm are at full load.
4.4 Nitric Oxide Emission
The nitric oxide (NO) emission characteristics of the diesel
and different test fuel blends derived engine at different load
conditions are presented in Fig.4. It can be seen that the NO
emission concentration increased with the load for all the
test fuels.
Fig.4 Variation of the nitric oxide emission with brake
power
This is due to the fact that, because with increasing load, the
temperature prevailing in the combustion chamber
increases [29-30]. The NO emission form engine exhaust is
highly dependent on oxygen concentration and combustion
temperature. The JME has about 11% oxygen molecule
which is the major cause of higher NO emission for this fuel
compared to all other test fuel used in this study. While
increasing the WTO percentage in the blend, the NO
emission decreases, because of lower heat release rates than
that of JME. The values of NO emission for diesel, JME, B10,
B20, B30, and B40 are by about 452, 614, 589, 564, 549, and
532 ppm respectively, at full load operation.
5. Conclusions
A single cylinder, four stroke, naturally aspirated, air cooled,
DI diesel engine was operated successfully using JME-WTO
blends. The following conclusions are made based on the
experimental results.

The brake thermal efficiency of the engine was highest
for the diesel and among different blend B10 gave
higher brake thermal efficiency. At full load, the brake
thermal efficiency is almost the same, i.e., 29.9% and
30.8% for B20 and diesel respectively, at full load.

The CO and HC emissions were lower by about 9%, 19%
respectively for B20, compared to diesel at full load.

Nitric oxide emission was higher by about 21% for B20
in comparison with diesel at full load.

On the whole it is concluded, that the B20 blend can be
used as fuel in a diesel engine directly, without any
engine modification. The B20 gives the optimum result,
compared to the other blends. The results from the
experiments prove that B20 blend is good substitute for
diesel fuel.
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 International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (IJTSRD) @ www.ijtsrd.com eISSN: 2456-6470
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